Oculus may sell at cost when released to the public

Through the backlash of fans and being sued by a former employer of their CTO, Oculus rages on. The device is still not ready for prime time, but edges toward our homes at a slow clip. Oculus’ expectations for the first wave of units on sale to the public? “North of one million”.

That comes via Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe, who spoke to Ars Technica at E3 this week. Seemingly pragmatic about the reception the Rift wold get, Iribe added “It’s not going to be a console-scale market. It always could be, but that’s not the goal. The goal is to set expectations low, get the enthusiasts and early adopters to get into the space, get their feedback, get developers making really great content.”

One major issue is content, where Iribe says a lot of work is needed. As they seek to create a new platform, Iribe is hopeful that more content craters will see the value in Rift, and start producing games and other content for it. Now that Oculus is part of Facebook, it’s not going to be a gaming-centric device.

Though a retail version is neither in the works or even in their timeline, Oculus seems content that whenever it happens, we’ll want it — and it will be affordable. We may have Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to thank for that, as Iribe notes that while his mindset was to make Oculus at least break-even the entire time, “Mark is much more in the mindset of ‘Let’s get this to scale with the best quality product at the lowest cost possible.’”

Selling the device at cost — whatever that is — may also be on the table. Zuckerberg seems content to allow monetization to happen via software, where he thinks any losses can be made up long-term. He may be right, but Oculus will need help creating it. A second Development kit is coming soon, but Oculus turned a few stomachs sour in selling to Facebook. If they can get their content strategy handled, we may be in a virtual 3D world sooner than imagined.